Eric Swalwell: “I thank the chairman of our committee for working with the minority to put together a bipartisan piece of legislation…”

“I thank the chairman of our committee for working with the minority to put together a bipartisan piece of legislation that serves our national security purposes. I also want to acknowledge both of the individuals for whom the bill is named, but particularly Damon Paul Nelson, the former staff director for the then-majority at the time, someone whom I and my colleagues saw put his heart and soul into the committee and someone who was able to keep many lines of communication that were necessary open during some of our most trying times. This is a fitting recognition of his service to our country. As chairman of the Intelligence Modernization and Readiness Subcommittee, I celebrate this bipartisan bill and the patriotic young people who enter service in the intelligence community, sometimes immediately after college, despite extraordinary student debt. For that reason, we have included measures to enhance intelligence community- wide student loan repayment and forgiveness programs. Reducing the financial burden on intelligence community workers helps us recruit and retain a talented and diverse workforce to remain competitive with the private sector. To that aim, we have also included a measure to authorize 12 weeks of paid parental leave for intelligence community employees in the event of a birth or adoption.…”